Mandy walked past Garrett’s room and heard sobs coming from inside. "Garrett?" She pushed the door open to see him sitting on his bed crying. "Baby, what’s wrong?" She sat next to him and he willingly crawled into her lap. She noticed the hockey magazine on the floor. "Garrett, what is it?"
"I want to play hockey."
"Ok, so we can talk to your dad and look into lessons for you once school starts."
"NO!" He screamed and clung to Mandy as he started crying even harder.
Mandy looked at him stunned. "Why? Garrett, calm down baby. What is all this about?"
"We can’t tell daddy, it will hurt him. He wants me to drive his car someday."
Mandy sighed. She couldn’t believe the pressure these kids felt trying to please their father and she couldn’t figure out where it came from. Dale had never pushed the kids to do anything they didn’t want to do, he never expected anything from them except for them to be happy. All of a sudden however they seemed scared to tell him anything. "Garrett, your father wants you to do whatever makes you happy." She could tell he wasn’t convinced, this was the end of the world to this little boy and nothing she could say would convince him differently right now. She rocked him gently and smoothed his hair. "It’s ok, it’ll be fine baby." He just nodded into her shoulder and wrapped his little arms around her neck as Dale walked by. He stepped into the doorway and Mandy just shook her head knowing if Garrett saw him right now it would upset him more. Mandy waved him on and even though he was concerned he knew Mandy knew best right now.
He headed downstairs to find Belle playing with the toy race track that was set up in the toy room. "Hey daddy, look you are winning." He smiled as he bent down and watched her chase the other cars around the track. She suddenly crashed the cars together. "Big one." Dale laughed as she stopped and looked up at him. "Can we go work on the cars?"
"Not right now but I was going to see if Taylor wanted to go driving, wanna go with us?"
"Yeah." She jumped up into his arms as Mandy walked in.
Dale saw the look on Mandy‘s face and sat Belle back on the floor. "Go get your sister and see if she wants to and I will meet you two out in the garage."
"Taylor." She screamed as she ran out of the room. "Taylor,"
"What’s going on? What‘s wrong with Garrett?"
Mandy let out a deep breath knowing that Dale wouldn’t take this well. She pulled him over to the couch and sat down with him. "Ok, for some reason Garrett thinks that if he doesn’t race you will be upset with him."
"What does he want?"
"He wants to take hockey lessons and he’s scared to tell you."
"What the hell is going on? First Taylor is scared she is going to hurt my feelings because she wants a certain notebook and now my own son is scared to tell me what he wants to do with his life. What the hell did I do to these kids? I didn‘t think I pushed them?" He said looking at Mandy hoping for some reassurance that he wasn’t a horrible father.
"Sweetheart, you haven’t done anything. I don’t know where this is all coming from. Maybe they pay more attention to the media than we think. Hell, passing the legacy on to your first born son is still the hot topic of all the reporters, even after all these years. They adore you, they look up to you and honestly, I think maybe they really believe this is how to please you. You are an amazing father, whom I love completely and so do they."
"I have to settle this all down. I don’t want my own kids afraid to talk to me about anything. My God, what if something really happened, they wouldn’t come to me. Family meeting tonight, everyone is there, no exceptions."
Mandy smiled at him. "We’ll be there. Where are you taking the girls?"
"Oh shoot." He kissed her quickly on the cheek and jogged to the door. "Driving lesson for Tay."
Mandy laughed. "Ok be careful."
Later that night, Mandy, Dale and Keith got the kids together in the living room so Dale could address them. "Ok guys, there is a reason I wanted to get everyone together. I know there have been a lot of secrets being kept from me all of a sudden and I know some of you are scared to tell me some things cause you don’t want to hurt my feelings. I don’t ever want any of you to feel that way." He pulled Garrett onto his lap. "Whatever you decide to do when you grow up." He looked at Taylor. "Whatever you like or don’t, all I want for any of you is for you to be happy. I love all of you no matter what happens. If none of you ever step into a racecar, I don’t care as long as you are happy doing what you do. I am thrilled that you can go to Keith and your mom if you have a problem but I want to be on that list also. Please, don’t ever be scared to tell me anything. I want you to feel safe and comfortable telling me the truth, always. I will always be here for each of you no matter what. I love you all more than anything in this world. Understood?"
They all nodded their heads and Garrett melted into Dale’s arms. "So you want to take hockey lessons, huh?" Garrett nodded his head. "Ok, so we will see if the school has a team and if they don’t we will get you lessons from somewhere else, that cool?" Garrett hugged Dale and jumped down running to his room to look at his hockey cards.
"Anyone else have anything they want to do when school starts?" They all jumped up yelling. Dale laughed. "Slow down, one at a time. Hailey, what do you want to do?"
"I want to be a ballerina."
"Dance lessons. DanI Lee?"
"I want to play the violin."
Dale was a little surprised by this one. "Didn’t know you liked the violin?"
"Yeah, I want to play in a band."
"With a violin?"
"Yeah, the girl in the Dixie Chicks plays a fiddle and the girl in the Melonhead band."
Dale cringed he couldn’t stand the Chicks but he was impressed with her knowledge of the instrument. "Meloncamp not Melonhead." He laughed. "and music lessons, got it. Belle?"
"Want to drive."
"Ok well we are a bit off from that happening so, don’t you want to do anything this year in school? Skating, dance, sports?"
She shook her head adamantly. "Work on cars."
Dale laughed. "Taylor?"
"I was thinking I may try and get on the newspaper or yearbook at school but I want to keep driving and working on the cars."
"Ok, so we will keep working in the shop, just the three of us. You know Taylor you are the right age we could look into go carts if you do want to start driving?"
"Really?" Her eyes lit up.
Dale looked at Mandy hoping he wasn’t stepping over any parental boundaries since they hadn’t discussed it. "Yeah, I know of a couple of leagues we could get you in."
"Do I have to start by racing?"
"No, we can get you a car and you can start driving it out on the paths behind the house, then if you want to race we can get you signed up."
She shook her head. "I want to do that."
"Ok, I will talk to your uncle Tony about getting a car."
"I love you daddy." She ran into his arms.
"I love you too baby."
He hugged each of them before they ran upstairs to get their baths and get ready for bed. Dale looked at Mandy. "I’m sorry I just got going on the go cart and I know we should have talked about it first."
"No this is your specialty but didn’t your dad stop you from racing cause they were too dangerous?"
"Yeah but things have changed and I’m going to get Tony Jr. to help me build one instead of buying one. That way we know exactly how it works and is put together, actually," he said the wheels turning in his head. "We could get a go cart for Belle and the other kids and they could all race out back." His eyes lit up at the idea and Mandy smiled.
"Whatever you want to do, I know you won’t put any of them in a car that isn’t safe. You know the race car drivers out of the group are Belle and Tay though?"
"Yeah, Garrett has no interest in it at all."
Mandy heard the disappointment in his voice. "You really ok with that?"
"Of course, yeah, I’m disappointed. I mean I always thought that my son would carry on the legacy but as long as he is happy and healthy I don’t really care. Belle and Tay are going to tear it up on the track. We may have the first female Daytona 500 winner upstairs right now." The Earnhardt grin coming back to the surface at the thought.
She hugged and kissed him. "I love you. I am going to go help Keith get the kids bathed and in bed."
Dale watched her go and really was ok with what went on. He knew they would each change their minds at least 20 times before any of them grew up. He heard Belle giggling from the bathroom and wandered up to help, realizing just how blessed his life was.